Safety: Public Health needs funds to hire more compliance officers

Elected officials need to realize that public safety means more than just law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system, and ensure the Department of Public Health and Social Services' Division of Environmental Health has the resources it needs to best protect the community.

The division has a huge responsibility in ensuring that about 3,000 facilities -- restaurants, school cafeterias, barbershops and hair salons, massage parlors, pools and other facilities -- meet local regulations. It's supposed to conduct regular inspections and close down establishments that don't meet standards for safety.

But the division has long lacked adequate staff to carry out these inspections and instead focuses its efforts on facilities that cater to "high-risk" populations, such as the cafeterias at public schools and at Guam Memorial Hospital. For other establishments, it usually has to rely on members of the public reporting possible violations before it will inspect them.

There are just eight compliance officers on staff, though only five are available to work currently, according to Thomas Nadeau, the division's administrator. Ideally, there should be 12 to 16 compliance officers, he says.

As for the entire division, about 70 personnel are needed to run at full efficiency he says. It has just 22 employees. The highest staffing level Nadeau has seen is 55, but he doubts the agency will get enough to even be able to increase its staff to 50.

Given the continued financial problems faced by the government of Guam and elected officials' refusal to make needed cuts and properly prioritze spending, it's unlikely that the Division of Environmental Health will get the funding it needs to hire enough staff to work at full efficiency.

But elected officials need to recognize that the services provided by the division, which ensures eating establishments and other businesses and facilities follow laws and regulations to protect the community, are critical to public safety. And then they need to find a way to better fund the division so it can hire at least a few more compliance officers.